


Painful Memories

by AnonymousHope



Category: Cookie Run (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Angst, Fireknight, Hanja run inspired, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, royal au, some mentions of death, will explain au in notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:07:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23815096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonymousHope/pseuds/AnonymousHope
Summary: It had been about a month or so since Fire Spirit returned with Royal Knight in tow, completely messed up from the harsh reality of his existence being nothing but a lie. Being made from an unknown being that had taken Knight's soul and brought him back to life stronger than ever, only to have decided his fate to be chasing wrongdoers and evil until his death. However, Fire Spirit didn't want to see Royal stuck on this path forever not knowing fully who he was before he came back to life, and wanted to help him live his life not predetermined, but in a way he wanted; which was that of his previous life.
Relationships: Fire Spirit Cookie/Knight Cookie (Cookie Run)
Kudos: 25





	Painful Memories

**Author's Note:**

> It’s been a while since I uploaded! To be truthful, I haven’t been too keen on playing or being in the cookie run fandom lately, but god do I love these two so much... So, I figured I’d also finally post this old gem of a story here as well, me and a friend thought up this whole crazy AU for Knight, it’s explained a bit in the story itself but I’ll explain it here more clear but not too too much.
> 
> ! OH ALSO, THIS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE PITAYA AND ALL THAT JAZZ. So it doesn’t account for him at all in this fic at all. Perhaps this red dragon was a different dragon than Pitaya, who knows ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ 
> 
> Essentially, Knight died fighting the Red Dragon by Fire Spirit’s side. Knight’s sacrifice was not in vain as a higher being decided that what he did was brave and that he deserved a second chance, and brought him back as a much stronger and powerful cookie capable of doing what he did before but better. This was all that he was made to do and was created believing he had a whole other life, but things changed upon meeting Fire Spirit and they got into a debacle with Dark Enchantress, where Royal learned he wasn’t what he thought he was.  
> ________________________________________________________  
> Maybe not the best story/plot ever, BUT it’s one of me and my friend’s biggest fav Au’s we’ve made yet. So I hope you can enjoy this as well!

It had been about a month or so since Fire Spirit returned with Royal Knight in tow, completely messed up from the harsh reality of his existence being nothing but a lie. Being made from an unknown being that had taken Knight's soul and brought him back to life stronger than ever, only to have decided his fate to be chasing wrongdoers and evil until his death. However, Fire Spirit didn't want to see Royal stuck on this path forever not knowing fully who he was before he came back to life, and wanted to help him live his life not predetermined, but in a way he wanted; which was that of his previous life.

However, adjusting Royal to this lifestyle, it was really tough on Fire Spirit, more than he bargained for by far. Everything Royal does from his looks to his actions and sometimes even habits are all strongly reminiscent of Fire Spirit's beloved best friend Knight cookie, but the pain of knowing Royal is a completely different cookie than his Knight, it always left him with a heavy heart at the end of the day. Sadly there's nothing he can do about this, as he doesn't quite fully understand the situation Royal is in, or even how he came back to life even. His only option now is to suck up the pain and try his best to be Royal's best friend and roommate of sorts, helping Royal adjust to a simpler and more domesticated life with less action and more mundane jobs such as guard duty. 

With all that in mind, nothing much had changed for the two, except that they finally moved out of the castle grounds and back into Knight's home, which was home to many nostalgic memories for Fire Spirit and a strange yet familiar place to Royal. They spent some time cleaning up the dust that had collected in the year or so the home had been unoccupied, and even went through some of Knight's old belongings, packed them away, and stored them in the attic so Royal could have some room for his belongings, such as his fancy armor, weaponry, and clothes. There really wasn't a lot Royal had kept or owned, so it didn't take long for him to settle down fully. Fire Spirit didn't own much either, and decided to take up residence in the guest room since Royal would definitely need some help not just out in public but at home. 

Today however, was not as interesting, as Fire Spirit watched the TV set in the living room in boredom. Currently, a concert for Rockstar seemed to be all the rage on the news, the tickets to see it haven't even started to sell and just about every cookie is trying to get their hands on a front row ticket, which he could care less for quite frankly, the hustle and bustle of visiting a live concert was never really his thing. Even more bored now that the TV was covering such a useless thing, he looked around the familiar living room again to truly let sink in its appearance and how it never seemed to change over the past years, even when Knight was around and well. The same sword decorations on the rather plain white walls, the same welcoming red couch, the same red armchair of which Dragon's Tail and the newly introduced Red Dragon's Tail loved to sleep, the many framed photographs of several different cookies or Knight hung on the wall, and so on...

In fact, a certain picture on the wall always stuck out to him and always made his chest swell with a warm and very welcoming fuzzy feeling, even as he looked at it now and smiled; a picture with Knight smiling along with a few other cookies, one of them obviously being himself. Ah, how he remembered taking that picture a few days before him, Knight, and several other cookies embarked on that journey to Dragon's Valley, he could still feel the excitement of the occasion even now, despite the photograph being taken so long ago. It's nothing but a bittersweet memory now, one that he still enjoys a lot to this day.

Without warning, a loud crash sound came from the kitchen startling not only himself, but the two resting pets on the armchair across from him, Fire Spirit quickly turning off the TV in reaction to the noise. All three of just them stared in the direction of the kitchen wide-eyed. The Tails may be confused as to what could have caused that, but he knew exactly who was in the kitchen at that exact time. “Royal!?” He yelled, and stiffened when he didn't get a reply immediately. Something had gone wrong, Fire Spirit concluded as he swiftly got up from the couch and ran down the short hall to the open doorway of the kitchen. Now standing in the doorway, he was able to get a full view of the situation, which thankfully didn't seem too severe at all. That was, until he looked for Royal. 

In the middle of the kitchen floor lied two broken plates, shattered to bits and pieces. Not far from it, on the floor and pressed against the lower cabinets was Royal, hands clamping his ears, breathing quite rapidly, and with his eyes wide open and focused on the broken plates as if he had saw the Red Dragon itself come back to life. The sight of Royal in a state like this was already enough to cause him to panic, it's never normal for Royal to show any extreme emotion aside from anger, and the sheer look of terror on his face was enough to convey something was deeply wrong.

Without any further hesitation, Fire Spirit quickly raced to the floor and to Royal's side, grabbing his shoulder to try to comfort him. Unfortunately, it wasn't well received as Royal quickly shoved him back out of either confusion or pure impulse, going as far as to scoot back further away from him, now eyeing the legendary cookie fearfully. “Royal..? Are you alright?” Cautiously, he slowly made his way back to the cookie clad in purple despite being shoved onto the floor just a moment ago, but to his dismay Royal only backed himself up against the opposing row of cabinets, still not calming down, not even at the sight of him. Was he... Terrified of him? No, that couldn't be possible at all. Earlier that day he did have a calm and normal breakfast with Royal, so it made no sense as to why he was reacting to him as if he was a monster.

“Royal, what's wrong?” He kept trying to talk to Royal in a calm voice, going as far as to stop advancing closer to the terrified cookie hoping that it would be enough for him to calm down and it did thankfully, the once terrified now blinking and taking in deeper breaths than before, looking him up and down as to identify who Fire Spirit was.

“...Fire Spirit..?” Royal finally responded back, his voice quavering to all new lows the fiery cookie never thought possible. “...It's really you, isn't it?”

“Why wouldn't it be me?” Fire Spirit replied in a sarcastic tone, taking Royal saying his name as a sign that getting close wouldn't be a problem, as he shuffled towards the purple clad cookie, who didn't seem keen on moving away thankfully. Even though it had been a while since he had been this close to him, he resisted the urge to hug him and just settled with resting his hands on Royal's shoulders, and locking eyes with the other in an attempt to come off as more comforting as he should be, since well he is taking care of him. “Look, everything is alright. Nothing bad is going to get you here, and I would never hurt you, ok? So calm down.”

Fire Spirit didn't know what he did, or if what he had said came off wrong, as Royal just. He just started crying, quietly at first but then that followed up with loud sobbing, powerful enough to cause the once serious cookie to hunch over, unable to stop. The fiery cookie panicked at this development, confused beyond words and actions as to what was happening or how he could help. That was, until Royal himself took it upon himself to wrap his arms around Fire Spirit and embrace him in a tight hug, using the legendary cookie's own shoulder as a place to cry on. Awkwardly forced into this situation, Fire Spirit didn't know what to do at first, but decided to rub Royal's back in a comforting way, trying his best to comfort the fancy cookie.

The two ended up awkwardly stuck in an embrace on the kitchen floor, for god knows how long until Royal finally lessened his grip on Fire Spirit, enough for him to finally reel back and get a good look of the other cookie's face; Royal's blue eyes full of tears, cheeks stained with past tears, and his overall expression full of sadness, which was very unfamiliar to the fiery cookie as he never really saw him with any other emotion on his face aside from his straight face and his angry face. It just really seemed confusing, to be this upset over breaking dishes that could be easily replaced. Unless it was something else bigger, which seeing the gravity of the situation, Fire Spirit had his bets on completely. It just didn't make much sense and was completely out of character for such a serious cookie to be upset over broken dishes.

“Fire Spirit... I...” Exasperated, Royal looked down in complete shame, wiping whatever tears were left with his sleeves. Fire Spirit opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out as he couldn't think of anything to say. “I... I think... I...” Now stuttering and repeating the same phrase like a broken record, the purple clad cookie couldn't seem to find the words to speak what was plaguing his mind, only frustrating and upsetting himself more and more by the second.

“Hey, hey, it's alright Royal just. Take a bit to gather yourself first.” Fire Spirit quickly said, doing his best to at least get the other to stop having reasons to continue being upset and have a better opportunity to calm himself down and properly say what he wanted to say. 'Perhaps leaving the kitchen and going to a much more lively room would be much better than here', the legendary cookie concludes after realizing they're still on the uncomfortable hard tile floor of the kitchen. Standing up, he offers his hand to Royal and helps the fancy cookie up off the floor and leads him out of the kitchen slowly and to the way more comfortable living room. Once there, the two of them sit down on the couch, and then go on to not say anything to each other, Royal still clearly bothered and upset from earlier. In a move to comfort him however, Fire Spirit reaches for the purple clad cookie's hands and the two hold hands, albeit awkwardly for the legendary cookie, mostly due to the fact Royal usually hates physical contact mostly, but the fancy cookie doesn't seem too bothered by it this time.

“So um...” Fire Spirit awkwardly started, unsure how to even approach the situation he didn't understand much himself. “Are you alright? It's ok if you don't want to talk about it, I sorta understand I guess.” Royal didn't turn to look at him at all while he spoke, or even showed any signs of really listening to him. It was then when he noticed the other seemed to be staring intently at the picture on the wall, it was the one he was reminiscing about earlier before the accident in the kitchen. “Are you curious about that photo?” 

Royal nodded, prompting him to go on about the photo and explain the origins.“Ah, you see that was before we went and took on the Green Dragon. Back then, we had several other cookies aiding us.” He couldn't stop the smile that spread on his face as he remembered that day and organized the photo to get taken, and the amount of foolery he pulled a few times before he finally settled down to take the picture that hung on the wall today. It was all so long ago, but it felt just like yesterday each time he gazed at the photo... “Everyone was really excited to protect the Cookie Kingdom from the Green Dragon, they all had their own reasons but I'd say Knight was the one who was more into doing it for the sake of the kingdom.” Royal squeezed Fire Spirit's hand at the mention of Knight's name, causing the fiery cookie to frown slightly. Ah right, he forgot Royal didn't really like the mention of Knight cookie, mostly due to all the times he would get called Knight when he goes by Royal.

“Why can't I remember that.” Royal flatly spoke out, the monotone voice catching Fire Spirit completely off guard. 

And to that, he sighed. He didn't understand Royal's memories or even Royal himself at times, it was already a big, unsolvable mystery that the fancy cookie was even brought back, or even why he ended up almost as strong as a legendary cookie when in his previous life he was but a measly rare cookie. “I really don't know Royal. Then again, you did die so I guess coming back just didn't catch everything.”

Royal fell completely silent. It was a very uncomfortable silence, especially with his hands locked with him, Fire Spirit felt completely out of place and even worried about what thing Royal could do next; that was one of his biggest fears when it came to him. He couldn't quite understand Royal as much as he understood Knight, which made serious situations such as this one terrifying, despite being a fully capable legendary cookie.

“I finally remembered something.” Royal broke the silence. 

“You remembered something?” Fire Spirit hunched over to get a view of Royal's face, trying to read his face. But as the fancy cookie always is, his face is emotionless, and hard to read with eyes closed, as he was deep in thought.

“Yes. And I do apologize for the way I acted in the kitchen as well, I didn't take too kindly to such a, well, traumatic memory that was suddenly forced upon my mind.” Royal opened his eyes and looked over to him, the eye contact he had been searching from Royal before now completely unnerving him, but he quietly nodded as to let the fancy cookie continue and confirm he was listening.

“I remember the last day of my- Well, Knight's life. I remember you being there and I remember the Red Dragon being there, and fighting against it.” Royal paused, taking a deep breath and again closing his eyes, but remaining turned in Fire Spirit's general direction. “The memory itself isn't bad, and it's enlightening as I finally learned what was the cause of Knight's death, but...” The purple clad cookie grimaced, “But it was the feeling of dying that got me more than anything, the pain felt real and all the anxiety I felt in that moment came rushing back to me, and completely overwhelmed me.” He started breathing more rapidly again, causing worry to flutter inside of Fire Spirit, but he didn't know what to do. 

“It... It was terrible, the sensation of those large claws ripping through the armor so easily and into my chest, and the pain that came from it, it wasn't real, none of it was because it was a memory, but I could feel it. It felt like I was going to die again, and I don't want to die again, it was so painful and scary and I was alone, I don't want to go through it again!” Panic seized Fire Spirit completely as he could only watch as the calm cookie started to hyperventilate, releasing the grip on Fire Spirit's own hands so he could grip the sides of his own arms, digging his fingers into the sleeves of the fabric so deeply that it looked like he was ripping the fabric!

Fire Spirit's first reaction was to immediately hug the blonde cookie, hearing a slight gasp from the other as he held his head to his own chest, trying his best to comfort the other. “It's ok. You're alive, the Red Dragon is dead.” He started to rock back and forth with Royal still hugged against his chest, freeing a hand from the hug only to stroke the other's hair in a comforting fashion. “Everything will be ok from now on Knight. I'm here for you.”

Royal stiffened, and that's when Fire Spirit realized what he had said. Fuck. He called him Knight again, even after he swore off doing that, especially after the hell that was their initial journey together. Even so, the fancy cookie didn't lash out, he didn't berate Fire Spirit, and he didn't rip himself away from him either, in fact he wrapped his own arms around the fiery cookie and hugged back.

“Thank god you're here Fire Spirit... I don't know what I would do without you.” Butterflies, or perhaps was it happiness he felt bubbling up inside? It was probably a mix of both, because in this moment, everything felt perfect to Fire Spirit. It was as if the Knight he knew was right here, hugging him just like the old days. And he didn't want this moment to end either.


End file.
